Figure Subscription Service 2.0 - Tiger Force Shipwreck
Ah, Shipwreck how you vex me.
I never really understood the rampant popularity of the Shipwreck character, especially as it aligned with his appearances in the Sunbow universe. He was pretty much a slacker in the 80's cartoon and had a tendancy to be hacking off when his comrades needed him the most. Granted, he also got put through the ringer on a regular basis, and was a character that had some impressive development over the first season or two of the cartoon. Still, I had a hard time finding a place for a guy in a sailor suit in my G.I. Joe adventures, and his Sunbow attitude didn't help.
Thankfully there have been some fantastic updates to the Shipwreck figures throughout the years, and that has salvaged his place among my G.I. Joe elite, but this version calls back to his Sailor roots and infuses them with some of the familiar Brazilian "Marujo" charm. In the 1980's, Brazil was a hotbed for G.I. Joe licensed figures, taking many of our familiar characters and mixing parts with paint applications to bring new characters to life, south of the border. I'm not entirely sure if Marujo was designed to be a totally new character, but considering his name means "Sailor" I'm not inclined to think so. Regardless of the intentions of Brazil toy maker Estrela back in the 80s, the Collectors Club just keeps him as Shipwreck, but gives him the familiar Tiger Force designation.
The Club gets some kudos for finding a way to work Shipwreck's bad attitude into the file card as well.
Taking some serious inspiration from the original Brazil figure, Shipwreck appears here in Tiger Force garb, but with long sleeves instead of his standard short sleeved sailor uniform, and it's a good look. The parts choice here works quite well, blending with the torso nicely and giving off an effective long sleeved shirt vibe. The mixture of yellow, black, and brown isn't altogether unappealing, and the end result is nicely reminiscent of the rare Brazilian repaint from back in the day.
Shipwreck comes pretty well loaded with accessories, mostly what he came with in the later 5-Pack near the tail end of the Anniversary line. The figure itself pulls most of his parts from that particular version as well.
The rifle, pistol, and spear gun are all great choices, and I still love the satchel with the two little pegs for Polly, even though it's been kicking around for several years.
While I'm not one to clammor for any particular version of Shipwreck, I know he's a popular character, and if the Club could figure out a way to work him into the subscription service, I suppose using a rare vintage foreign repaint as a base makes sense. All that being said, the choice isn't all that thrilling to me personally, and while the execution is good, the source material remains iffy, at least to me.
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